


don't self-destruct, please do not erupt

by Vitamin



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Dark Knight | DRK (Final Fantasy XIV), Gen, M/M, Male Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), drk 50 quest spoilers, fray and rielle are both mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25825786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vitamin/pseuds/Vitamin
Summary: "Anyone could wield a greatsword, but the darkness that resided within this man could almost be felt in the air."Sidurgu meets one Warrior of Light.
Relationships: Sidurgu Orl/Warrior of Light
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	don't self-destruct, please do not erupt

**Author's Note:**

> title from "doomed to try" by human kitten.

His eyes look dead.

That’s Sidurgu’s first thought upon meeting the other Xaela outside Whitebrim.

Sidurgu had caught wind that someone had seen Fray outside the Gates of Judgement heading towards Whitebrim Front a few hours ago. Rielle had looked at him with such a look of devastation mixed with hope that he had no choice but to investigate. There was little of such hope in his own heart, but...

If Fray was somehow alive…

When he arrived at the fort, his hood up and a cloak wrapped tight around his armor, it was to a shaken up collection of Durendaire knights who pointedly refused to look at him. The only pieces of information he managed to get out of anyone (that anyone being a particularly young, nervous Hyur who looked as if he was on the verge of tears) was that there was a fight between the knights and an armored individual. Whoever they were, they had fled shortly after being defeated.

A fight. No one in their right mind would try to fight an entire fort’s worth of Ishgardian knights. If it _was_ Fray, there was no way he wasn’t injured.

What in the seven hells had happened here?

The dark knight scouted the surrounding area, deciding first to head towards Behemoth’s Dominion. It was out of the way, remote. It was the perfect place for Fray to go if he was… he was…

Instead, what he finds is something he could have never predicted. Another Au Ra, wielding a great sword that he immediately recognizes and clad in heavy armor, locked in battle with a few Temple Knights. His attacks are a bit messy, reminiscent of a beginner only starting to feel comfortable with a blade. He manages to hold his own, at least.

Sidurgu keeps to the shadows as he watches it unfold. If his assistance was necessary, he would step in… but as he continues to watch, he realizes something quickly.

This mysterious Xaela is also a dark knight.

Anyone could wield a great sword, but the darkness that resided within this man could almost be felt in the air.

He hasn’t met any other dark knights except for Ompagne, himself, and Fray. He wasn’t entirely sure any others existed, that their order wasn’t just composed of their master and his broken orphans, but… evidently he was wrong.

“Wielder of dark arts! Consort of dragons! I will bring you to justice, even if it costs me my life!” the remaining Temple Knight hurls at the other man after his comrades have been cut down by the blade. Sidurgu closes his eyes before stepping forward and pulling down his hood.

“Shall we oblige him, then?”

* * *

There’s no light behind this man’s eyes. They’re golden, ringed with glowing yellow, but there’s an _emptiness_ behind them that makes Sidurgu instinctively hesitate to speak.

He’s taller than Sidurgu—by at least a good three ilms—with dark skin and darker circles under his eyes. The poor bastard looks like he hasn’t slept in a week, but he does have some qualities Sidurgu can’t help but find handsome. Full lips, a broad chest… too bad it’s under such circumstances they met.

“Who are you,” the Xaela says, his voice too monotone to be considered a question. It’s obvious, even to Sidurgu, that something in this man is broken. Whether that something is broken beyond repair remains to be seen.

“I should be asking you that,” Sidurgu replies, crossing his arms. He came out here wanting answers and all he’s been given is more questions. “Who are _you_? Who trained you? You walk the path, and yet...”

“Myself,” the other man says, tilting his chin up to look down at Sidurgu. It seems like a challenge, one that almost makes Sidurgu bare his teeth in retaliation. He is _not_ in the mood to deal with some haughty Xaela with an ego. He’s about to do as much when the other continues. “I am Tabur Kha.”

Sidurgu vaguely recognizes the name of his tribe at least. He was barely more than a babe when the Orl were forced to abandon their homeland of the Azim Steppe, but he remembers his mother talking about a friend in the Kha who could secure their tribe passage to Eorzea. Tabur’s answer to his other question, though, sheds no light upon anything of worth. He has not heard of anyone walking the path alone, especially a Xaela from the Steppe. Deciding the hazard a guess, he steps closer to Tabur.

“Not Fray?”

Tabur visibly tenses at the question, his eyes falling to stare at his feet.

“So you _do_ know of him…” Sidurgu murmurs, then looks closer at Tabur’s sword.

It’s Fray’s. There’s no doubt in his mind. He would recognize that great sword anywhere, no matter the circumstance.

“I thought him fallen at the trial, but then I heard whispers of a man seen wielding his sword in battle…”

“Stop,” Tabur says. Sidurgu bristles. “If you’re going to ask me what happened to him, I won’t have anything new to tell you. Fray was dead before I got there.”

“ _Got there?_ ” Sidurgu says. “What in the bloody hells do you mean by that?”

“Fray was dead before I got there,” he repeats, looking at his armored feet. “He was dead all along. I… I wanted a teacher— so the soul crystal gave me a teacher...”

Sidurgu stares as the other Xaela begins to mumble under his breath. It takes a few minutes of listening to the other’s low voice, monotone but tinged with a hint of desperation but what exactly _occurred_ begins to dawn on him.

“By the gods…” he murmurs. He can guess how this played out, Ompagne had mentioned how this occasionally occurred if a soul crystal was passed down immediately after its previous owner's death. This Tabur Kha stumbled upon Fray’s body, found the soul crystal passed down from dark knight to dark knight, and his yearning for a teacher _took_ Fray’s body and piloted it. Those rumors he had heard, of Fray yet living, were completely false.

Fray was dead all along.

Part of him wants to resent Tabur, for denying his… his _friend_ peace. Their life together had been anything but that. The one solace Sidurgu was able to find knowing Fray wasn’t here any longer was that perhaps Halone had welcomed him to Her halls after all. He wants to hate Tabur, but… he can’t. The man is obvious on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He needs someone, even if that someone is a stranger.

He steps closer to the other Xaela. He’s hunching, trying his damned best to make himself appear smaller than his large frame can allow. He’s still mumbling under his breath, words Sidurgu can barely make out. He can pick up on “sorry” and “esteem,” but not much else.

Sidurgu places a hand on Tabur’s shoulder. The Xaela tenses even more, but does nothing else. His frantic mumbles begin to slow, until soon they’re completely lost to the Coerthan winds.

“You are safe. You are whole,” he says quietly. He’s never been the one to _comfort_ others, but the situation seems to demand it. Something in Tabur seems to relax at his words. A small mercy, at least. “I don’t know what exactly happened, but you carry Fray’s legacy with you. It speaks to your potential that you were able to learn the arts with only his soul crystal to guide you.”

“Speaks to the darkness inside me, you mean,” Tabur says, “that I was able to get this far.”

“Perhaps,” Sidurgu allows, then shrugs. “Fray and I’s master told us when we were young that there cannot be light without darkness. It seems that is something you need to learn, too.”

Sidurgu, unaware that he’s talking to _the_ Warrior of Light, squeezes Tabur’s shoulder once before pulling back his hand.

“Meet me in the Forgotten Knight when you’re ready. I have something I’d wish to discuss with you.”

The shorter Xaela is almost out of the clearing when Tabur calls out to him.

“Wait!” he yells, holding a gauntlet-clad hand out. Sidurgu pauses and turns to face the other. Tabur’s hand falls. When he continues to speak, he sounds breathless. “Your… your name. You never told me your name.”

“Sidurgu Orl,” he calls back.

Despite the distance between them, he swears he can see a spark of life return to Tabur’s eyes with his words.

Perhaps Sidurgu was better at this comforting thing that he first thought.

**Author's Note:**

> i know wolnpc ships are very niche, especially with job quest npcs, but sometimes you gotta indulge yourself! if i write more to post about these two, i'll put them in a series.
> 
> come scream about 5.3 and drk quests [here](https://twitter.com/seatofsacrifice) with me!


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